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Thursday, February 24, 2011

I have my housewife routine down pretty well here. We get up at 8AM. I have breakfast with Steve, make his lunch, send him to work then do my thing in the day. I've been working on homework, taking walks, reading, shopping, watching BBC specials on literature and period piece television shows. I've baked (as Suzanne's Foodie Blog has been showing) and even playing video games on the Xbox. Not having one of those for all my years really makes me feel deprived!

At night there is quality time with movies, IT Crowd, and more video games. The weekends have been fun too. I'm still trying to figure out how to get to places other than the grocery store and Retail World so Steve's been showing me other places nearby and how to get to them on the bus. A few weeks ago I took the metro in Newcastle too. I'll get the hang of public transportation eventually.

We're coming up on March which means I have my graduate portfolio to get done in a few weeks too. May graduation is creeping closer.

One lesson for today: if your Kindle freezes, don't panic like I did. Take the power button, slide it to the right and hold it for 15 seconds then turn it back on. Select book and read as normal.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Here’s, what happens when I have to be put in a group for my online classes. I take the imitative, write the first email saying hello to everyone and say, “let’s talk tomorrow and see what we can come up with”. I’ll check my email the next day and the partner or partners have already done 90% of the project. This is why I would so rather just not work in groups or have partners for online classes. If we get graded individually for separate parts of one main project, cool, I can handle that. But I do not want to be responsible for anyone’s grade at all. I don’t think that’s fair at all, especially when you have your own grade to worry about.

I’ve been talking about this class of mine on my Suzanne Librarian site. I have partner work that needs to be done and, yeah, I’m just not good at that. Sitting with someone at school or work and doing a project is fine. But when you’re working online, it gets really hard to have communication. Plus, it’s an online class. Online classes are for people who want to sit at their desk, work, get it over with and move on to the rest of their daily chores. I’m so, so glad I’m graduating. I have three months to the day until my library science classes are over. Hooray!

Anyway, I’ve been keeping up Suzanne’s Foodie Blog and it’s been a lot of fun. It’s a simple, easy to update project that I like a lot.

It’s Friday again and we’ll be having our Pizza Party for Two. I think I’ll have Steve watch Sixteen Candles finally. He needs to experience the cultural icons that Farmer Ted and Long Duck Dong are.

This weekend will be a local trip around town. I’ll make sure to upload all of my pictures to my Flickr too. I’ve been neglecting that a bit since I’ve been posting most things in Facebook. I’ll get back to it though.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Yesterday I accomplished something of a personal challenge. I walked down to Retail World where I could visit TK Maxx (TJ Maxx to us in the US) and Next (another small department store) that has the Starbucks, and Boots (all things toiletry and pharmacy).

I luckily still had audiobooks on my iPod, so I put on "The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things" and set out on my walk. It's a down the hill, down the straight road, across the "zebra crossing" and into the strip mall parking lot kind of trip. Much easier done with some kind of book to concentrate on.

I was able to grab us a couple shirts for Red Nose Day (I got the Shakespeare one, Steve has the Black Adder one). Then I grabbed a bag for £14. I was on a mission to find a bag that I can take around the shops with me. It's difficult for me to know how to prepare for cold weather without a car. Now I have an over the shoulder, not to big, fake alligator skin black bag for putting my gadgets and shopping, umbrella, keys, hat, scarf, etc in.

I still am not sure how people stay clean without a car. I was sweating like I did at the gym after walking up that hill. I need lessons first, then a car when I snag a job I think. I am a bit too prissy to handle sitting at work all day after sweating through my shirt on my trip in.

It's a foggy, dreary Wednesday. I'll take a walk later but first I hung around the house. The weather wasn't very motivating.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Yesterday Steve and I spent our rainy Sunday in Newcastle. We weren't able to sight see in Durham due to the weather so we went to the movies instead.

We were going to see "Black Swan" so on the bus we jumped (I bought the bus tickets myself - first time trying that.) On our way, I suggested we go to see "The King's Speech" instead. We arrived at the bus stop by the Newcastle Library and walked to the Tyneside theatre. Wow. It's an old movie theatre that was renovated. (In the States, they just close them down.) There were red curtains, mosaic tiles and fancy carvings in the arches and such. And the concession stand included a full bar, coffee and popcorn (options of kettle or buttered - no extra butter options.)

The movie was so nice. It was a proper British movie at a proper British theatre. All on a rainy, English Sunday that needed to end in a Sunday roast.

We took the Metro (I got my own ticket there too!) We got to The Cluny which usually has quite good food but after the waitress talked to her hip friends and took their order, Steve was told "we're not taking orders." What? There was food being served (some being complained about too) but no food to be ordered for us? We left. I called to ask the kitchen what the story was. Apparently they only take orders every 30 minutes. Steve said that's not something he's ever heard of pubs doing. We walked on to the Quayside.

We went to the Pitcher & Piano for Sunday roast. This worked out well for my new blog project: Suzanne's Foodie Blog. Now I can document such new meals like Sunday Roast. (Yorkshire pudding is super tasty!)

We finished the evening by watching most of the Superbowl.(Too bad neither of us understand what's going on.) It was a very nice day and a great end to a fun weekend. Saturday Steve showed me how to get to Retail World so now I can walk to shops. I also have to phone my professor sometime soon too. Never had to do that before. I'll be so glad when this term is over.

Friday, February 4, 2011

It's been windy and rainy here in England. We had to put putty on the bedroom window because it was making a horrible buzzing sound all night. We also kept hearing what sounded like a window banging or a tree branch hitting the side of the building. Finally Steve went outside to find a little gate door that was slamming in the wind. Needless to say after our DIY work we were able to sleep much easier last night. Jake even slept at Steve's feet. I think they've bonded.

Since the weather's been a bit unwelcoming, I've been in the flat for most of the week. I had a bit of a hard night last night when my professor told me that I'd get a low score if I didn't redo my school project. I ended up changing it and resubmitting it. I'm going to be so glad to get these classes over with in May. I know that some librarians said their classes were easy but mine are just tough. Tons of busy work and projects. How I miss the days of good old reading and writing papers as an English student.

This weekend will be an adventure though. Steve and I plan on visiting Durham Saturday, then on Sunday he'll show me the easy way to get to Retail World. I have got to learn how to get around here. Granted, it's only been two weeks but it's so hard to not just be able to get in the car and go somewhere when I want to. Until then I have dishes to do. It's pizza party night. We can keep watching Sherlockand playing Little Big Planet 2 - both presents to Steve from Santa.